


On "Dust"

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves (condensed) [6]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Crimes & Criminals, Drazi (Babylon 5), Drugs, Dust (Babylon 5), Episode: s03e06 Dust to Dust, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Corps, Sacrifice, Shadows (Babylon 5) - Freeform, Smuggling, Worldbuilding, illegal drugs, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23474056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: A reader asked me: "I have a stupid question and you are the expert on B5 telepaths... So Dust... What happens if a telepath in the B5 universe takes Dust? Do they get the same high as a normal? Or not? A temp boost like when they go into hyperspace? On the flip side, if telepath is victim of Dust user... I don't get why a telepath would be more traumatized, (permanently) as a victim of a Dust user than a normal (temporarily). Bester mentions this in Dust to Dust (god I loved him in that episode), but doesn't explain why."I answer the reader's questions, and more!This work is a selection from theBehind the Glovesproject, with all the sections of this work together in one place.
Series: Behind the Gloves (condensed) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687384





	On "Dust"

In [Natasha Alexander's story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991930/chapters/27130080), I broadly explained the origins and purposes of Department Sigma and Psi Corps secret projects in general, but I'd put off a more in-depth discussion about Dust specifically till later in the project.

And while I do intend to come back to this point later, when I reach that time period, that doesn't mean I also can't answer key questions and clear up key issues now.

First, and critically, I need to explain one of the chief ways that canon misleads the audience about the street drug called "Dust".

  * Did you know that Dust is mentioned several times in canon before the episode _Dust to Dust_ , and that none of these references have ANYTHING to do with either the Corps or telepaths?


  * No one - not even paranoid Garibaldi - associates Dust with telepaths, the Corps, or secret experiments. It's a well-known, illegal street drug, associated with crime and poverty.


  * No one understands why Bester would come to the station to deal with a Dust problem - what's this have to do with the Corps? People try to smuggle Dust through the station (and in general, off-world) all the time (see examples below). None of this ever has to do with the Corps or telepaths.


  * _**Just about no one in that world associates the Corps and telepaths with Dust - only fandom does**_ , because of the way the show (misleadingly) presents it. You forget every other mention of Dust in the show (before that one episode or after that episode), because That One Episode, and from then on its become "an obligatory element in any fanfic about the Corps (or telepaths in general)" and something missing from fan works that have nothing to do with the Corps or telepaths (even if they deal with poverty and crime).


  * I MEAN IT: No one in that world thinks of these things as related - even Garibaldi, who is up to his elbows in 1) dealing with criminals and 2) bullshit conspiracy theories about the Corps being behind everything. Normals don't think this way, and telepaths don't think this way, either.


  * Many people in that world - including telepaths - have never even HEARD of this particular dangerous street drug.


  * And if you've heard of it, you assume its origins are no different from that of any other street drug. It's obviously made "on the street" like any other street drug.



Here are the references to Dust, **_that all have nothing to do with telepaths or the Corps_** , from episodes other than _Dust to Dust_.

I don't know who said all the lines - if you have it, you can drop me a line.

The emphasis is mine.

\-----

  * Garibaldi in _Survivors_ (Season 1):



"Years ago, I worked security in the Europa ice-mining operation. A cesspool. **Murders, theft, Dust peddling.** Half the Command was in on it. The other half didn't care. Except for me. Ever try to uphold the law when nobody cares?"

**_(The events here took place in the early 2240s - Dust has been around as a dangerous illegal street drug for a long time.)_ **

  * Some characters in _Hunter, Prey_ (Season 2):



"Won't you be recognized?"

"I don't get into Downbelow a lot. When I do, they don't see me, they see the badge. And I have an excellent disguise. Let's go."

"Why is my life suddenly passing in front of my eyes?"

"You don't belong here. Your clothes say money."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of my way."

" **What is it? Dust? Guns? You buying or selling?** Or running away? That it? Is somebody chasing you?"

  * Franklin in _Exogenesis_ (Season 3):



"Computer, begin recording. Deceased is a human male, age 35, identified as having lived in Downbelow since June of 2258. **Toxicology scans indicate the subject used a variety of controlled substances: traces of Dust, morphozine and others** , but not in sufficient quantities to cause death. No overt signs of physical trauma. Scanners indicate heart, lungs and other internal organs are all in fair condition."

  * Some characters in _The Illusion of Truth_ (Season 4):



"Scanners turned up something suspicious in those crates. We went to take a look, and they got in our way."

"Explosives?"

"The scanners say no. **It could be weapons, contraband, Dust.** "

"Well, then, let's open them up."

  * Some characters in _Racing Mars_ (Season 4):



"Please advise Commander Ivanova we have the cargo she wanted."

"Confirmed, shuttle. We'll have Security standing by."

"I realize in the past that we've had our little ups and downs. **I mean, some of you have tried to smuggle in Dust, weapons, other items on our prohibited list** , and we've had to come down on you. That's our job. Most days, nobody gets hurt."

  * Security in _Conflicts of Interest_ (Season 4):



"Computer, status report."

"Transferring updated security data to main post. Summary: Four arrests in Brown 3. **One customs infraction: Possession of Dust.** One unauthorized entry recorded."

  * And this gem of a conversation from _The Ragged Edge_ (Season 5) linking Dust with **_THE DRAZI GOVERNMENT_** :



"That's where it gets dicey."

"It was a human transport. We think he may have been smuggling illegal goods into Drazi Space, on orders from their government."

"That's great."

"Wait a minute, the Drazi government? What kind of illegal goods?"

" **Every race that joins the Alliance agrees to boycott items on the prohibited list. Dust.** Certain other drugs used to control and violate people. An assortment of really nasty biological weapons. That sort of thing. Officially, they agree to keep the stuff out. Unofficially, they buy and sell it all the time. They use it to control colonies, trade for resources. They subcontract with smugglers to bring the stuff in. If anything goes wrong, the government can deny any knowledge."

"Which means we can forget about any cooperation from the Drazi government."

\-----

What's odd is actually that Bester showed up to deal with that one specific Dust dealer out of **_all the hundreds, if not thousands, of others who are smuggling the stuff off-world or trying to do so._** I mean, the whole Drazi government is in on it, and that's _**WAAAAY**_ the hell out of the Corps' jurisdiction. ^_^

It's also odd that that one line in _Dust to Dust_ that the Corps was involved with the development of the drug (I'll get to that later) is what fans remember, when they don't remember **ALL OF THE ABOVE** , even though half of that was said on screen after _Dust to Dust_ , including the link to the Drazi government.

If you just want to pick a street drug, there are others - even other drugs used to "control and violate people" (Dust is actually a really poor choice for that, because you can't scan someone very well when you're hallucinating and violent... these aren't reliable scans _at all_ ). There are also other drugs, see above, that are designed for alien biology (Dust is not).

Yet somehow when Dust comes up in fanfic (or LARP or whatever), the Corps/human telepaths/rogue telepaths are involved in the story, and not THE DRAZI GOVERNMENT. Yes, Dust's development (a generation or even more earlier) does involve the Corps - and I will explain that - but at the time of the show, the genie is long out of the bottle. Dust has become an entirely different sort of issue, one that doesn't have to do with the Corps, or with rogue telepaths. (Look at those examples! None have to do with rogue telepaths! None!)

 ** _The Corps doesn't have jurisdiction in Dust cases_** \- which is why everyone was so surprised when Bester shows up. As you see above, this is a mundane law enforcement issue. The Corps has no jurisdiction unless a telepath is the perpetrator of a crime, or the victim of a crime. Normals who sell Dust, or who get high on Dust, are not under Corps jurisdiction.

I think there's some kind of phenomenon going on that once the Corps is mentioned, fandom connects everything to it, and ignores everything else - even more so when Bester personally shows up, because then they link it not only to the Corps, but to him _personally_ (no matter how absurd this is).

It's like how I can go to con dressed in bright solid purple or red, very femininely with make-up and jewelry, no PPG, and people ask if I'm a Psi Cop - or even on occasion if I'm "cosplaying" Bester _himself_.

No, I'm not him. I'm me. I'm a _different_ telepath.

(This is an example of what someone I knew online referred to as "fandumb.")

And Dust is not a "telepath issue," either.

\-----

Now, into the specific reader questions about Dust!

  * "So Dust... What happens if a telepath in the B5 universe takes Dust? Do they get the same high as a normal? Or not? A temp boost like when they go into hyperspace?"



Dust is very dangerous for telepaths because telepaths who ingest it have a much more severe reaction than normals do.

A normal who ingests it will get high on it, but this comes with hallucinations, psychosis and violent behavior. Yes, it usually (usually!) makes the user temporarily somewhat telepathic, but I doubt they would be beyond P5 level or so, at least for very long... and in an extremely unreliable way. Users are also hallucinating and in a very unstable mental state, which sure doesn't make for reliable scans. Anything they do telepathically is almost certainly by accident, or it's "intentional" in the sense that they meant to do it, but not in the sense that they were in their right mind in the first place. (If someone is hallucinating and attacks someone thinking they're a giant spider, or that a spirit ordered them to do so, they "meant" to attack them, but not in the same way that someone who was in touch with reality would "mean to" attack someone.)

The drug also wears off, though it's highly addictive, so people who get hooked on this stuff are going to be desperately looking for their next fix.

Telepaths generally have a much more extreme reaction. They may never come out of the psychotic and violent state. The Corps was obviously trying to develop a drug that was safer (in part through studying the brain tissue of telepaths who'd ingested it, at Department Sigma), but what hit the streets as "Dust" was probably even worse - who knows what it's being laced with and how it's being made "on the street"? It started out extremely unsafe, and probably ended up even more so.

I don't know the details as to how much someone had to ingest (or how long they had to be using it) before they never came out of that state, I just know it was all really bad. That's what Brett's talking about when he says telepaths "driven mad when they tried to push [them] past P12 with drugs" - it wasn't "going past P12" that drove them mad (Vacit's a P13, and look what the Vorlons did with Lyta... though whether she was entirely sane after that is another matter). It was about the method - the drugs themselves. Whatever it is that Vorlons directly or indirectly do that allows for people to be stronger, it's not these drugs.

  * "On the flip side, if telepath is victim of Dust user... I don't get why a telepath would be more traumatized, (permanently) as a victim of a Dust user than a normal (temporarily). Bester mentions this in Dust to Dust, but doesn't explain why."



It doesn't make sense because it's wrong. It's backwards. Dust is more dangerous for a telepath to _use_ (much more dangerous) - that's the damage that is likely to be permanent. That's why the telepaths at Department Sigma were "driven mad."

But telepaths are more able to defend themselves from telepathic attack than normals are.

I don't think normals who are high on this stuff would be stronger than a P5, if even that. If they are stronger, they're not stronger in any stable sense, or for very long. Telepaths, like everyone else, would be much more in danger of _physical attack_ by someone high on the drugs, than from telepathic attack.

Remember, this drug is not in Psi Corps jurisdiction - it's always in normal jurisdiction. That means that mundane cops are completely capable of restraining or otherwise dealing with normals who are high on it (which they can't do with rogue telepaths).

Also, if a normal who was high on the stuff could permanently hurt a telepath, but not normals, _Bester probably wouldn't be there in the first place_. P12s are valuable, especially experienced Psi Cops, and if Bester thought that the mundane police (whose job this usually is anyway) could do the job, and were at far less risk than he was... he'd just let them do it. If they're hurt, the damage isn't likely to be nearly as severe, and if they're killed, well, mundanes. No telepaths were hurt. End of story.

(He and Kelsey came to the station to stop Ironheart because **_no one else could_**.)

If this contraband allowed normals to get high and be able to kill Psi Cops, the security people on the station would be well aware of this fact already. They wouldn't need a Psi Cop to show up and tell them this basic fact about their job and the risks a common street drug poses to telepaths.

So then we'd have to say that he's there because normals high on Dust can hurt only _some_ telepaths, say, the weaker ones, but not others (not what's said on screen - he makes no such distinction), but that again, security doesn't know this, either. (Garibaldi is not _that_ stupid.)

Also, we're to believe that the Corps developed, and tested, a drug that would allow normals to wipe them out just by getting high on it? REALLY?

And that they tested it on their own people, even though when those subjects got high on it, they could kill everyone in the lab, because it's That Much More Dangerous for a telepath to be attacked by someone high on it than for a normal to be so attacked?

There are zero canon examples of telepaths getting injured (permanently or otherwise) by normals high on the drugs. None. It's this huge risk to telepaths, it's a common contraband drug, but there's no example anywhere in canon of any telepath meeting this fate?

I could go on and on. Honestly, it's just backwards. I don't know why it was written wrong, but it was.

I don't think this is a case of "he's lying," either, because even that doesn't make sense. There's no benefit to making up a lie like that, and telling normals (such as Garibaldi) that there's actually this SUPER HUGE (AND SECRET) VULNERABILITY that telepaths have. (They don't.) Bester would never go to mundanes (let alone those like Ivanova who just tried to kill him) and be like "Hey! Did you know it's super easy for someone who ingests this stuff to permanently injure or even kill a telepath?"

No, this is just written backwards. Nothing more to see here, move along now. ^_^

**Telepaths are better able to defend themselves, but it's far more dangerous for them (and others around them) if they ingest it.**

\-----

Now, as to the background on Dust...

As I mentioned above, [Natasha Alexander's story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991930/chapters/27130080) gives, in detail, the story of the origin of the mysterious "Department Sigma," and their critical mission in helping humanity some day defeat the Shadows. (Natasha Alexander is Lyta's grandmother - she was also taken up by Vorlons. This is canon. The linked story takes the various canon pieces given here and there and reassembles them into a coherent story.)

The drug that eventually got leaked out on the street and became known as Dust (I have no idea what it was called before that, so I can't tell you) was, originally and long before the show, developed at Department Sigma, a top secret Psi Corps facility located on Mars. Natasha Alexander, Lyta's grandmother, commanded the unit for years, running an outfit so secret that Director Johnston himself didn't really know what went on up there. He eventually had her assassinated. Since Lyta knew her grandmother through her cadre years, and she was born in late 2225, then Natasha had to have been assassinated some time in the late 2230s or even in the 2240s. (Bester also had a chance to meet her, during and immediately following the Black Fox Raid in 2222. You know, the one where he confronted Stephen Walters on Mars, and lost use of his left hand? That raid. Natasha was also there.)

The story I linked to above gives the background of the secret lab, their founding and their purpose. In a nutshell, it was "fight the Shadows, and keep everything secret, especially from the Psi Corps director, because he cannot be trusted." (And sure enough, he was every bit as bad as people worried he would be, and even worse.)

As I explain in that story, it was realized that there weren't nearly as many telepaths as there should have been, given the early campaigns of violence and even extermination perpetuated by normals. Director Vacit began to worry, after his visit with Vorlons (who, in their Vorlon way, explained things to him), that if something wasn't done, and quickly, humanity wouldn't stand a chance. So they had to work with what they had - they had to try to make existing telepaths stronger. They had to find a way to make more stable telekinetics. They even might have to make normals telepathic enough to fight the Shadows - a really risky idea, but the survival of humanity was at stake.

So Department Sigma started developing drugs that could enhance telepathic strength of existing telepaths, and potentially could promote telepathic ability in normals (at least until the drugs wore off). The _product_ of this research is what eventually leaked to the streets as "Dust" (and other variations on it, since they were trying to make something far less dangerous).

I don't think the drug they tested on telepaths was different from that that eventually leaked to the streets (that normals were getting high off of), and I don't think Department Sigma ever actually tested it on normals, though I'm fuzzy on this piece and maybe that was how it leaked. There were extensive tests on telepath volunteers (ALL VOLUNTEERS, like Ironheart (in his experiment) was a volunteer). They came in knowing they would never be able to leave, understanding that, and donating their bodies to science (as is pretty standard with such things). I'll get to this point more later in the project when I discuss the experiment that Bester volunteered for.

The books also say confusing things about Dust because the character who tells Bester about the Department Sigma experiments is himself confused.

On page 200 of Deadly Relations, Brett says to Bester on Mars:

"Have you ever seen one telepath _dissect_ another? Have you ever seen one driven mad, when they tried to push him past P12 with drugs?"

This is the same program he's talking about. Unfortunately, he is also _totally mixed up_ as to who was doing what and why, and he's talking to Bester, who at that time (2256) doesn't know more than Brett does.

Then canon doesn't explain anything further on this point - who was dissected and why? - which is why I wrote the fic linked above to tell you what they should have explained, somewhere, at least as to the basic overview of what Department Sigma was up to, and why. Much of that fic is directly from canon, edited for clarity, moved around, and interwoven with new material to explain what's there.

When Brett says this, Bester assumes the experiments are to better protect telepaths from future extermination plans orchestrated by normals (an entirely reasonable fear, given the past and present, but one that canon somehow always manages to spin anyway into a nefarious plot about "telepath world domination" or some such crap):

Bester: "I've heard of such things, of course. Sometimes they may be necessary. You know as well as I do that one day there will be a war against the mundanes, Brett, a war we _cannot_ lose. I, for one, am willing to make a few sacrifices to see that my people aren't slaughtered." (Not "our people"?)

Brett: "Of course. I don't question that, Al. Any of us should be happy to sacrifice anything and everything for the others. What I'm trying to tell you is that this isn't being done for us - for _teeps_ \- it's being done _to_ us. By mundanes."

While this is true in 2256 - by that point, Johnston had assassinated Natasha Alexander and just about every telepath in the Corps who could potentially challenge him, including just about everyone Bester and Brett had grown up with (as Brett goes on to explain) - this was _not_ true when Dust was developed, under Natasha Alexander. And yes, telepaths were dissected back then, too, because they donated their bodies to the Corps. Theirs is a story of _sacrifice for others_ , not just for telepath-kind, but also, for all of humanity (in the future war against the Shadows).

So was Ironheart's story, but they don't tell you that part.

There's a much larger story here about telepath sacrifice - and the values in the Corps around sacrifice - that canon's not fleshing out here. I will flesh that out as the project goes on, because it's hugely important. While it's expected of telepaths that they will all make sacrifices for the Corps (see my examples [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10604910) and [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11984886) from the Psi Corps Student Handbook, to illustrate at least the ways in which these ideas are introduced to children), such sacrifices are always made by _telepaths themselves_ , for the Corps or here, for humanity itself. The key is that the decision was made by telepaths - normals were never involved.

The opposite is what Brett believes to be occurring (and which absolutely was occurring throughout the EA in that time period) - that normals were killing telepaths for the good of _normals_. Killing someone _else's_ people to save your own ass/for what you believe is the greater good is unacceptable - telepaths consider this to be an atrocity against their people. When telepaths have to die, for whatever reason, it is telepaths and telepaths _only_ who get to make that decision, and not just any telepaths, either.

I get into this more later. There are a lot of places in canon where this is important.

Brett: "When Vacit was in charge - and for years after - the Corps was controlled by telepaths. Now it's not. They aren't experimenting for our own benefit, but to make us better weapons. Hell, surely you've heard about Dust?"

And Brett is confused - he's mixing up the mundane plot to sell telepaths to the Shadows as "weapons" (which was happening in that time period) with why Dust was developed (much earlier). In the Dust project, yes, they were being made into "better weapons" (in theory), but not for the sake of benefiting normals (at the expense of telepaths) - but _to fight the Shadows_. Perhaps he doesn't know that the Shadows were a thing - a real and dangerous thing - let alone that they'd already infiltrated EarthGov, so he's thinking this is all some evil mundane plot against telepaths. (And the mundanes do have plenty of evil plots to hurt telepaths... but at the moment, the worst of them _involve the Shadows_. You know, like the one to sell telepath prisoners to the Shadows as "weapons components" in exchange for military technology (see, [Hybrid Shadow Ships in EarthForce](https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_hybrid))? The Shadows, of course, want human telepaths entirely eliminated as their endgame.)

Brett didn't get the memo. He knew there was a conspiracy - he tells Bester about it in the same speech - but he doesn't seem to know that this was about _the Shadows_. He's heard rumors, but doesn't know what it's all about. (More on this later, because it's getting a bit off-point to Dust.)

Bester: "Yes. What's wrong with trying to enhance our powers?"

Brett: "Bull. Dust was developed to give mundanes psi, AI. To undercut us completely."

No, it was developed both to enhance the abilities of existing telepaths, and to be able to give mundanes (temporary) telepathic abilities if that last resort was needed to defeat the Shadows. Brett's theory makes sense only if one doesn't know the Shadows exist (and have already infiltrated top positions in EarthGov, including the Corps), and that telepaths are crucial to fighting them. Without that last piece, Brett's theory is the only logical one.

This is only a year before Santiago's assassination. The conspiracy was in full-swing. And Brett knows there's a conspiracy, and he knows that mundanes are taking control of the Corps away from telepaths and have been for years, but he's only heard rumors (at most) about the Shadows, e.g. rumors of scary alien artifacts being found on Mars, and even of the Shadow ship they were all digging up with the help of IPX. He doesn't have the full picture.

And there's the backstory. This is why Dust was developed.

Unfortunately, it never worked well. In fact, it worked _really badly_.

Bester eventually found out more about the program, and realized this whole thing was a giant mistake. Really, the whole thing failed top to bottom. The Corps was never able to successfully enhance telepaths' abilities with drugs (P5 to P10, P10 to P12, past P12, etc.) without driving people _totally psychotic_ (and violent), and permanently so. Normals who ingested the same substances experienced similar effects, but only on a temporary basis. The drug was highly addictive - and somehow the formula got out, and a cheap way to produce it became established on the black market. This led to an increase in crime, violence, and organized drug dealing, and to massive resource/financial drains on the mundane police as they tried to control the problem.

Facepalm.

Double facepalm.

_Triple facepalm._

Bester, in _Dust to Dust_ : "You know, I said all along this whole Dust idea wasn't going to work. We spent five years developing this stuff, tying it into latent genes and it hasn't produced one telepath of acceptable strength among the normal population." (This line is often misunderstood by fandom to mean that the drug was developed five years before that moment in the show - no. The drug was developed decades before. It just took five years to develop back then.) "At least we got it out of the hands of aliens and back among humans where it belongs."

(He doesn't know the Drazi government is the chief sponsor of interplanetary Dust smuggling... he would have figured this out if they hadn't forced him onto sleepers for the whole episode, because mundanes are dicks. And he didn't know this key fact going in, because Psi Cops don't manage Dust problems - that's the job of the mundane police. This isn't what he usually works with. I'll cover this eventually when I get to that episode.)

The episode then ends with a reprise of a theme we see elsewhere in that episode (and elsewhere), one which is actually _central_ to the Dust story, and to the story of the volunteers who gave their health, their lives and their bodies to protect their people and to protect humanity from the Shadows:

_We are fighting to save one another. And some of us must be sacrificed, if all are to be saved._

Remember when I said that the story of the the development of Dust was actually one about _sacrifice?_ That's why this line is here (though of course, the meaning of this line here is not explained in the episode itself - that would undercut the spin game they're playing). This backstory is why [the entire reconstructed story about Natasha Alexander](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991930/chapters/27130080) is about sacrifice in one way or another - her sacrifices, Vacit's sacrifices, the sacrifices of all of the telepath-kind. Everything I was saying before about sacrifice and telepath culture? It comes in here.

(And is also echoed in other places in canon, such as in G'Kar's story, in this episode and another.)

But G'Kar is "not my plot," and everything I know about Narn could fit into a thimble.


End file.
